Of Axes, Alter Egos, and the Lines of Flirtation
by imagination-running
Summary: After "Big Man on Berk," Hiccup takes on the task of creating his dad a new axe to replace the lost one. Fishlegs is unaware of how much that particular axe meant to the chief, and Astrid just thinks it's a good opportunity to flirt. One-shot.


The Axe

A/N: This story falls in immediately after the "Big Man On Berk" (Thor Bonecrusher) episode in season one of "Race to the Edge." I just have a head cannon that Hiccup would be the one to replace Stoick's axe (I'm pretty sure a very similar axe does make an appearance in later episodes.), and this is a story that follows that line of thought.

Rated T because at the end of the day, Hiccup is still an 18-year-old man with some strong feelings for an attractive, accomplished 18-year-old woman. Nothing risqué, just not skirting the reality.

 **HTTYD RTTE HTTYD RTTD HTTYD RTTD**

Exhausted from another day in the forge, Hiccup lowered the fire, put away his tools, made sure the half-finished axe head was safe and secure, grabbed his carving knife and the thick stick he had chosen for the axe's handle, and led Toothless out of the forge. "Come on, bud. Let's get to the Great Hall. The others are waiting for us."

Soon, they were with the other Dragon Riders. Toothless had a pile of fish, and Hiccup had a trencher of chicken and potatoes. He started eating, just as Snotlout and Fishlegs began on their second rounds. Astrid had bowl of berries and yak cream. Tuffnut had a piece of bread dripping with yak butter and honey, and Ruffnut was finishing off her tankard of mead.

"So, Hiccup, when are we going back to the Edge? We were only supposed to be here to relocate the scaldron, but we did that two days ago," Fishlegs hinted.

"Yeah," yelled Snotlout. "My dad said if we stay much longer, he's going to sign me up for the Berk Guard."

"Why would he do that?" Tuffnut asked around a bite of bread. Honey dribbled onto his vest.

"I don't know," mumbled Snotlout. He lowered his head, and his eyes darted around the room, as if he were hiding from someone.

Ruffnut laughed. "It's because you blasted a hole through the back of your family's hut when you tried to get Hookfang to light the firepit instead of just building the fire yourself, you idiot. Duh!"

Snotlout sent her a dark glare. "Shut up."

Hiccup rolled his eyes at his cousin's incompetence and took another bite of chicken.

Fishlegs huffed. "Back to my question. When are we leaving, and what's the hold-up?"

Hiccup calmly finished eating his bite and took a drink before he answered. "We should be able to leave the day after tomorrow."

His response was met with a multitude of discontented exclamations. Even Astrid, who had been the most patient and understanding about the delay grumbled. "Come on, Hiccup. We have to stay two more days? Do you know what my mother has been making me do all this time?"

Hiccup gave her a deadpan look. "Yes, because you spent half of this morning hiding from her in the forge and telling me all about it. She's been teaching you how to weave, dye, and sew fabric."

"Exactly. I can't take two more days of that, Hiccup. Spitelout is going crazy keeping Snotlout in line. Ruff and Tuff have been up to their old Loki tricks, and I'm pretty sure Gothi is going to poison them if they mess with her one more time. And Fishlegs, here, has been smothering Meatlug in affection since the whole Thor Bonecrusher incident. We need to get back to the Edge, to exploring and hunting down Dagur."

Hiccup looked impassively at the beseeching faces gazing at him and shrugged. "I'm sorry guys, but I need one more day in the forge. We can leave first thing in the morning, the day after tomorrow."

Tuffnut grunted and relaxed in his seat. "Hey, it's fine with me. Ruff and I had a plan to trick the chief, so we still have time to do that."

"NO." Hiccup locked eyes with his craziest friend and planted both hands on the tabletop. "I forbid you to trick Stoick. I've spent the past two days working on a new axe for him, and I'll spend half the night and all of tomorrow finishing it. He's been irate about the loss of his old one ever since the scaldron episode. I have spent every spare minute that I'm not working on that axe, working on his frustration, and you will not ruin all my hard work. Trick Gobber. Trick Gothi, for all I care, but do not go near my father!"

Tuffnut's eyes widened, and he leaned back from Hiccup. Then, he tilted his head towards Ruffnut and whispered loudly, "You know, when he gets all worked up like that, you can really see the resemblance to Chief."

"I know," answered Ruffnut. "The Haddock temper is strong with this one."

Tuff shuddered. "He's got that scary chief voice, too."

Ruff nodded. "I say we leave Loki-ing Stoick for another day. What say you, brother?"

"Aye." He turned back to Hiccup, who was pinching the bridge of his nose at their antics, and announced, "We shall leave your father alone tomorrow, but never fear, his day is coming, and it shall be glorious!"

"The best Loki trick yet!" Ruff agreed. With that pronouncement, the pair wandered off to go to bed or annoy someone else. Hiccup wasn't sure which, but so long as they left his volatile father out of it, he didn't care.

Snotlout yawned and stretched in his exaggerated fashion. "You people are boring, and I'm leaving." He, too, left the Great Hall, calling for Hookfang before the door even closed behind him.

The table was quiet for a few minutes. Hiccup finished the last of his supper, pushed the plate away, glanced at the sleeping night fury beside him, then picked up the stick and carving knife from where he had sat it beside him on the bench.

"Is that the handle?" Astrid asked as he started stripping away the bark.

Hiccup nodded. "I need to get it carved tonight so I can fix it to the axe head tomorrow after I get done heat treating it."

"So what was so special about his old axe?" Fishlegs asked, sopping up some gravy with his bread.

"It was his favorite, and one of his oldest. My mom gave it to him as a wedding gift. I can't replace the sentiment, but I'm making the axe as close to the same as the old one as I can. I worked with it enough to know everything about it. Making a new one is all I know to do," Hiccup answered, never looking up from steadily stripping the stick.

"Wait! You mean the axe that I stole from the chief and lost in the ocean was a wedding gift from his dead, beloved wife and that he's angry at you about it?"

Hiccup's hands stilled, and he looked up at his friend. Fishlegs looked stricken and possibly like he might cry. Hiccup caught Astrid's eye and sent her a questioning look. She shrugged, not knowing how to handle the situation any more than Hiccup did. Hiccup turned his attention back to Fishlegs. "Look, 'Legs, it's okay. He's not angry at anyone. Grieved is probably a better word, and his grief tends to come out looking like anger, but he knows that you didn't mean it, that it was an accident."

"But you're taking the blame for it!" If anything, Fishlegs looked more upset than he had before Hiccup's statement.

"Uhh…No, not really, I mean. After you took the axe, I promised Dad that I would get it back, and I failed to do that. That is my fault. I should have tried harder to get the axe from you before you lit out after the scaldron with Snotlout."

"But it was a gift from Valka! She's been gone for eighteen years! That was probably the only thing Stoick had left from her!"

Hiccup felt his heart clench a bit. Only Gobber ever really spoke about Hiccup's long-dead mother, and even he rarely referred to her by her name. Hiccup had no memories of the woman who birthed him and was taken by a dragon only a few months later. All he had from her was a cloth dragon and the helmet that had once been half of her breast-plate. He couldn't miss her personally, but he did miss the idea of her. From what little he knew of her, he thought he would have gotten along with her well, that the two of them would have been quite a bit alike. Hearing her spoken of so abruptly and openly brought back old, sad childhood wishes for her to be in his life. He didn't even know her name until he was eight years old, and he had to ask for that information. Regardless, Fishlegs was distraught, and Hiccup had to comfort him.

"Fishlegs, listen. Dad has several things that my mom left him. The axe may have been one of the most special, but it wasn't the only thing. His helmet, for instance, was from her – sort of, and he's still got a small chest that he keeps safe back in one of the storage closets here in the Great Hall that has her marriage dress and a pearl and gold necklace that he gave her as a betrothal gift in it and probably a few other things. All I'm saying is, he has other mementos of their life together, and even without the things, he has memories. Losing the axe was more a blow to his pride, to be honest, and I was kind of exaggerating his ire to keep the twins away from him," Hiccup explained.

"Oh!" Fishlegs relaxed, took a breath, and chuckled. "Oh, that's good. You made it sound like he was really angry. So, you're sure everything is okay, then? No hard feelings?"

Hiccup smiled and nodded. "I'm sure. Now, go on. I know your little sister wants you to teach her some more about her gronkles. She came asking me questions about the hatchlings earlier today, but I couldn't spare her much time and told her she would have to talk to you tonight."

Fishlegs perked up at that statement. All worry and anxiety vanished from his features as he stood. "Ooh! Meatlug is going to be so excited! Mudflower is getting a gronkle, too." With that he all but skipped away, lost in his thoughts of his sister's dragon plans.

Astrid who had taken over stripping the bark off the stick when Hiccup sat it down to talk to Fishlegs, scooted a few inches closer and handed the smooth limb back to him. "Exaggerated, huh?"

Hiccup shrugged and started whittling the wood. "A bit…" he hedged.

"To whom, I wonder: Fishlegs or the twins," she mused, running her finger around the edge of her tankard.

Hiccup huffed a quiet laugh. "A bit to both, really. Dad was pretty angry for the first day or so, but he's been better today. Still kind of grumpy and short - with me, especially - but better."

Astrid hummed and took a sip of her mead. "Snotlout's really to blame. I mean, Fishlegs wasn't in his right mind. You were only trying to clean up the mess, but Snotlout was the one who 'created' Thor Bonecrusher while Fishlegs was under hypnosis. If he'd have just kept his big mouth shut, none of this would have happened."

Hiccup bounced his right knee a couple of times and tossed his head to the side. "Eh, well, that's Snot for you. Always got his big mouth wide open. Don't worry about it, Astrid. This new axe will mollify Dad, and with time, he'll forgive us all for losing his old one. As for Snotlout, well, don't forget that I make the patrol schedule on the Edge." He gave her a significant look.

Astrid beamed at the implication. "And I am in charge of daily training exercises," she added with a gleeful note in her voice.

"Just don't torture him," Hiccup implored as he went back to whittling.

She pressed her hand to her chest and feigned an offended look. "Me? Why, I would never do that. You know me better, Hiccup Haddock."

Hiccup chuckled. "Indeed I do, milady."

She punched his shoulder just enough to make the knife slip and leave a small notch in the wood.

"Astrid!" he whined. "Look what you made me do. Why would you do that?"

Astrid threw her head back in laughter. Her hair fell like a braided waterfall behind her, glistening like spun gold in the firelight. She held a hand to her belly as she laughed at him, and when she finally turned to look at him again, she had to wipe the corner of her eye. "Poor baby Hiccup," she mocked him in baby-talk. "He's got a notch in his axe handle from a widdle punch on his shoulder from a girl."

Gods, he loved her even when she was mocking him. Now was not the time, though, so he pushed back the thought and shook the stick at her as if she were a naughty child. "I'll have you know, young lady, that that notch will take me an extra ten minutes to fix. That's an extra ten minutes of loom time for you."

That took some of the spunk out of her, and she pouted. Then, she smiled again. "Nope," she declared. "That's just ten extra minutes I get to sit here with you."

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye and smiled. "You're incorrigible."

She pushed her empty tankard away, pulled his half-full one towards her, and took a drink. "How so?"

Hiccup focused on the stick as he worked to whittle smooth the notch. "First, that's my cup you're drinking from right now, and I wasn't done with it, thank you very much." He cast a glance her way to see her sticking her tongue out at him, eyes dancing in amusement. "Second, you've got to win every argument, serious or silly." Another glance at her, and she pointedly took another gulp from his tankard. "And third, you're so going to torture the snot out of Snotlout when we get back to the Edge."

She drained his cup, smacked her lips in satisfaction, and banged it back onto the table. "Well, I wouldn't be a very good daily training coordinator if I didn't demand excellence in all areas on and off the field from my trainees. A true warrior always keeps in mind the value of each individual person to the group, nor are they a complete and utter moron – ever. Since Snotlout has yet to learn either of those things, then I clearly must focus more on pounding the message into his tiny little brain."

"I guess I can't argue with that logic," Hiccup acquiesced, "but you're still incorrigible."

Astrid released a long-suffering sigh. "Fine, I'll give you that one."

"Thank you," Hiccup stated with a polite incline of his head. "Now, would you please go refill my mug because I'm still thirsty and have more to do on this handle."

Astrid laughed again, but grabbed both mugs as she stood from the table. "Mead or water?"

"I'm already tired. I'm handling a sharp object, and I'm already down to three limbs. It'd be best to keep me sober, please."

"Whatever you say, dragon boy," she called over her shoulder as she sashayed towards the barrels across the hall.

Hiccup watched her walk away. He was certain that swing in her hips was not normally nearly that pronounced. Surely the leather strips that made her skirt didn't normally flip about so much. He could spot the blue of her leggings clear up her thighs and around her bum. Oh dear Odin, he was ogling Astrid's butt!

Hiccup dropped his gaze immediately, his neck, face, and ears burning. This could not happen right now. They were only six teenagers living unsupervised on the Edge, over a day by dragon and a week by boat from Berk. They were supposed to be chasing down and stopping Dagur. They were supposed to be exploring and mapping the lands beyond the Archipelago and discovering new dragons. They were commissioned with keeping Berk protected from their most distant enemies and stopping any new threats. Now was most definitely not the time for him to be eyeballing the behind of his second in command and best human friend.

Even if he had spent half the morning trying to not think about her sitting at a loom learning to weave so that she could one day keep a family of their own making in clothes; even if the briefest glimpse of her shapely rear was branded in his head begging to be imagined bare (curses on his fantastic yet wayward imagination); even if her golden hair shined in the fire light like the noon day sun; and even if her laugh was the most joyful sound he had ever heard, he could not allow those things to distract him from his goals, his duties. He had the Riders, the dragons, his dad, and Berk to be thinking about, not romantic – and he reluctantly admitted carnal – thoughts about Astrid.

There was a plan. There were rules. All laid out in no uncertain terms by first and foremost his father, chief of Berk, Stoick the Vast. The council had seconded "The Plan," and the parents of the other Riders had given it a resounding third. Nowhere in "The Plan" were romantic endeavors included. Snotlout's attempts at wooing Astrid aside, Hiccup was quite certain that trying anything in that direction would be heavily frowned upon.

He looked up to see Astrid returning, tankards full enough to slosh over the sides. He could see a bit of foam gathering around the edge of each mug. The smirk she was wearing confirmed that she had not heeded his request for water. He smiled and shook his head, chest flooding with warmth, brain logging away that smirk that he just knew was daring him to do something about her doing the exact opposite of what he had told her. _Maybe after Dagur is captured or killed and Berk is safe again,_ he thought to himself. _Maybe then I can think some more on golden hair, joyful laughter, an incorrigible spirit, a daring smirk, and a shapely rear. After all, when have I ever abided by the rules?_

 **HTTYD RTTE HTTYD RTTE HTTYD RTTE**

A/N: The ending feels a bit abrupt to me, but there it is. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading.

Disclaimer: I don't own HTTYD.


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